Elissa Altman

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Advance praise for permission

Marvelous, passionate, and charming …. — Anne Lamott

I can’t think of a better book on the craft of memoir….This is a masterclass. — Katherine May

This insightful, empowering book should be on every writer’s shelf. — Maggie Smith

MOTHERLAND is available in paperback and audio

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NOW AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER

Coming in March 2025 from Godine

“Motherland is gorgeous ... A complicated work of lyrically-wrought prose with a quiet surprise on ever page. ”

— Lambda Literary Review

“Elissa Altman is a beautiful, big-hearted writer who mines her most central subject: her gorgeous, tempestuous, difficult mother and the terrain of their shared life. The result is a testament to the power of love and family. ”

— Dani Shapiro, author of Signal Fires

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I wrote these words last year. As someone blessed with very old and very new and very dear friends, I think about these words every single day. They’ve brought me back to reread Cicero’s Amicitia on friendship, kindness, sincerity, loyalt

There are few places where I feel truly safe in the world: next to my wife, in Maine, and in Ireland, among the Irish. As I am in Maine, I will always be from away when I am in Ireland, and I have the deepest gratitude for my friends and non-blood re

“True power does not amass through the pain and suffering of others.” • Joy Harjo

Such unspeakable gratitude for @debhaalandnm and her confirmation yesterday as Secretary of the Interior. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

#befierce

We had not lived under the same roof for thirty-six years when my mother arrived here a year ago this week. She stayed for three months. Some days, she never got out of bed. Other days, she watched Play Misty for Me on a shrieking, blood-curdling loo

Sunday supper, stuffed with tarragon and garlic, rubbed with Himalayan sea salt and black pepper.

#grammysunday

Melting season.
The threat of middle-of-the-night freezes and days hot enough to confuse my roses. This day last year, my mother arrived for 3 extraordinarily difficult months. We watched the seasons change together from my front porch.

Gardening,

So much has changed in a year. All I know for sure is this: we have to hold each other, and we have to have faith in each other. It’s all we have.

My mother, adjusting her Grecian sandals. 1971, camp visiting day.

It took us three weeks to convince her to leave NY during the earliest days of Covid. She refused until someone she knew got sick, and then we couldn’t get to her fast enough.

We have a deal: on the nights when I’m teaching my memoir workshop, @susanturnerdesign cooks. Last night, while I was in my office teaching Charles Johnson and the art of revision, Susan was in the kitchen, mastering the art of making homemade

We are so blessed by the children in our lives. Sixteen years ago today, I was supposed to be in attendance at the birth of this small person sitting next to me. Sadly, a snowstorm kept me from being there to help welcome my cousin @scarlettalondon t

Photo by Gentl + Hyers